Tuesday, December 26, 2006

How to Build a Turkey (Vegan, of Course...)

After making a way-too-dense seitan loaf at Thanksgiving, I decided to go with an old standby: Tofu Turkey, which has been served on numerous occasions. However, this time, I decided to use seitan instead of tofu. I even tried to sculpt the 'hind legs' or whatever those lumps are on a traditional turkey. Here are some assembly pics, as well as the recipe that was originally from Vegetarian Times:

I first laid down slices of seitan on a parchment-lined cookie sheet:
I then formed the stuffing around it:
I then draped homemade pastry over top (and formed 'hind legs' with seitan and stuffing inside), then brushed with vegetable stock:

Once baked, it looks delicious, and much tastier than the 'real' thing!

Combined with a number of other items, it made a delicious Christmas feast!

Here's the recipe in case I've persuaded you to try it next year:


'Turkey'

2 - 1 pound loaves bread
2 tablespoons margarine
2 medium carrots, finely diced
2 large stalks celery, finely diced
1 large onion, finely diced
pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sage or celery salt
½ cup Egg Replacer/water combo (about 2 tbsp egg replacer with the rest comprised of water)
½ cup vegetable broth
3 good size pieces of seitan (I used about half of a recipe for VwaV's Seitan)
pastry for a single-crust pie


1. Break bread into 1 - inch chunks; dry in a large bowl, uncovered, for at least 8 hours or overnight.
2. Melt margarine in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrot, celery and onion; sauté, stirring frequently, until lightly browned. Transfer to a large mixing bowl; cool to lukewarm. Add pepper, bread cubes, sage (or celery salt), egg replacer and broth. Toss to combine; set aside at least 30 minutes to allow liquids to soak into bread.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Arrange overlapping slices of seitan on parchment paper in a row; mounding in centre. Press stuffing mixture around seitan to cover completely. Wet hands lightly, and press into a neat oval shape.
5. Roll pastry sheets out to 1/16 - inch thickness; arrange, overlapping slightly, to make a large rectangle. Seal edges with dabs of water.
6. Drape pastry over mound; trim excess away around bottom. Use scraps to cut out decorative shapes (leaves, apples, etc.); attach with dabs of cold water. For a shiny crust, brush pastry lightly with veggie broth. Bake 1 to 1 ¼ hours, covering pastry with foil if it browns too much.
7. Transfer ‘turkey’ to a platter. To serve, cut straight down through pastry, stuffing and seitan to make neat 1-inch slices. Serve with gravy.

10 comments:

Tracy said...

And it was amazingly delicious! (minor note: those are VwaV's Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables on the back of the plate. The only thing that I changed was increasing the oven temp to 425 degrees)

Unknown said...

And those veggies were awesome! But I'll know for next year to not put a giant plop of mashed potatoes on my plate - they paled in comparison to all of the other goodies!

Dan said...

Hey Sarah, I think you're some kind of vegan food genius or something. Holy Toledo. I'm drooling just by looking at this photo.

The Tofurkey loaf and the Zen Unturkey (I think that's what it was called) are both pretty good. How does your brilliant concoction compare to those two? Have you tried them?

I've been vegan for over five years and I'm never going back. (In fact, I review cookbooks for Vegsource.com.)

Great blog you have here. I'm bookmarking it. Happy Holidays! Lots of love.

Anonymous said...

I linked to this on my blog and people are loving it. You're the best!

Amey said...

Yeah! That looks so fun and also very tasty. maybe I'll make it sometime, even if it's not a traditional holiday. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Anonymous said...

W o o o o o w . . . I could NEVER do that! It looks way good; I'd probably eat some packaged stuff! I have no idea how you get these ideas, but you, are like, the vegan food m a s t e r...

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I like the recipe,however the reason I wanted it is because I think it is really mean to eat a turkey so why would a person want to shape something good into something that is sooooooo mean and cruel?
Sincerely,
Lisa

Tracy said...

It's kind of tongue-in-cheek for vegans who approach dealing with their omni family at the holidays with a sense of humour. You could use any sort of shape you desire.

Emily H. said...

One year later and I made this! Thanks for your tips on the ppk website too. I posted a picture of the outside here: http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2055477911&size=l

Thanks for this awesome recipe! It was fantastic.

Unknown said...

Thank you for your recipe. I chopped the Seitan in my stuffing, modified the recipe a bit. Very good! One person said, it was the best stuffing they've had. :) I didn't shape it...just served stuffing among many other dishes this Thanksgiving Day.
11/26/09